20 Dope Nissans

Hands down the dopest dope we’ve ever smoked.

For this year’s Nissan issue we decided to go back, way back, and pay homage to some of the most amazing Nissans we’ve ever featured. It goes without saying that we’ve given the spotlight to an insane amount of sick cars so whittling down the candidates to twenty was very difficult, but the cars on this list are some of the most influential cars of our scene. In no particular order, we present our picks for the twenty dopest Nissans ever to grace our pages.

SIGNAL Drag R33 GT-RORIGINALLY FEATURED September 2000WHY IT MADE THE LIST One of the first Skylines to destroy American dragstrips, this 751hp beast not only ran 9-second passes but was street legal to boot.CONNECTsignalauto.co.jp

LIGHTNING STRIKES Time Attack S15 SilviaORIGINALLY FEATURED August 2011WHY IT MADE THE LIST Our pick as the best car at Tokyo Auto Salon 2011 is quite possibly the craziest time attack Silvia yet.CONNECTlightning-strikes.jp

SIGNAL Z33 Fairlady ZORIGINALLY FEATURED November 2004WHY IT MADE THE LIST This car is so sick we still use photos of it in advertisements today. Did we mention it has an insane SR20DET engine swap?CONNECTsignalauto.co.jp

HKS D1 Grand Prix S15 SilviaORIGINALLY FEATURED December 2002WHY IT MADE THE LIST In a time when drift cars were Japanese makes with 4-cylinder turbocharged engines, this was the baddest of them all, piloted by NOB Taniguchi.CONNECThks-power.co.jp

Paul Bischoff KGC10 SkylineORIGINALLY FEATURED March 2010WHY IT MADE THE LIST When you’ve got a hakosuka this clean you’re already set; throw in an ITB’d RB25 engine swap and it doesn’t get much better than that.CONNECT osrdyno.com

SIGNAL Time Attack R34 GT-R ORIGINALLY FEATURED August 2004WHY IT MADE THE LIST This is the 700hp winner of the very first US time attack then called the “Sport Compact Car/Super Street Time Attack Challenge,” known now as Super Lap Battle. CONNECTsignalauto.co.jp

TOP SECRET Z33 Fairlady ZORIGINALLY FEATURED June 2004WHY IT MADE THE LIST One of the very first extremely-modified 350Zs, this car’s custom widebody was covered in Top Secret’s trademark gold paint. CONNECTtopsecret.ico.bz

Tatsuya Sugata 510 BluebirdORIGINALLY FEATURED April 2011WHY IT MADE THE LIST One of the cleanest restorations we’ve ever seen, this car has a unique blend of old and new pieces which won it the “King of Cool” award at Histrix Japan 2010. CONNECTrefresh60.jp

M-SPEED Time Attack R34 GT-RORIGINALLY FEATURED August 2010WHY IT MADE THE LIST This GT-R isn’t just the most (possibly) modified example in the world; it also holds a lap time of 55.23 seconds at Tsukuba, making it Japan’s fastest Nissan.CONNECTmspeed.jp

YASHIO FACTORY Time Attack S15 SilviaORIGINALLY FEATURED June 2003WHY IT MADE THE LIST With this insane pinku Silvia we introduced our readers not only to the now famous Yashio Factory, but also one of the first time attack style S15s.CONNECT yashiofactory.co.jp

ROCKY AUTO S31 Fairlady ZORIGINALLY FEATURED October 2010WHY IT MADE THE LIST The guys at Rocky Auto are infamous for pulling off unimaginable swaps, but they really outdid themselves with this widebody RB26 S31.CONNECTrockyauto.co.jp

BIKO WORKS KPGC10 Skyline GT-RORIGINALLY FEATURED May 2010WHY IT MADE THE LIST While owning a real hakosuka GT-R will never be more than a dream for most of us, Biko Works has the real deal. And it’s heavily-modified.CONNECTbikoworks.jp

JUN AUTO Z33 Fairlady ZORIGINALLY FEATURED May 2007WHY IT MADE THE LIST Where should we start—how about the VQ38 engine swap? Or maybe the AWD conversion? Or perhaps the 838AWHP it puts out? Take your pick.CONNECTjunauto.co.jp

AUTO GALLERY YOKOHAMA Time Attack R32 GT-RORIGINALLY FEATURED December 2010WHY IT MADE THE LIST This owner-driven GT-R is one of the fastest time attack cars in Japan, clocking the highest front-straight speed of 322.44km/h (200.35mph) at Option Magazine’s 2011 Fuji time attack.CONNECTag-y.com